Behind Barbed Wire: The Unseen Struggles at Delaney Hall

Just off the New Jersey Turnpike in Newark is a fairly nondescript building, in an industrial district on the banks of the Passaic River. It is a squat, block-like grey thing, windows facing out across a sea of concrete parking lots and gas tanks. The air is smoky, and on hot days, you can smell the mixture of natural gas, animal fat, and sewage from the other plants in the area. Surrounding it are iron walls, faced inwards, resembling an umbrella topped with barbed wire. Aside from this unusual fence, it would resemble a hundred other industrial buildings, but for the iron letters spelled in imposing Times New Roman on its sides: DELANEY HALL. 

Delaney Hall is a private prison owned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, although its operation has been contracted to the for-profit GEO Group for $1 billion over 15 years starting in 2025. They had previously operated the prison to house detained immigrants from 2011 to 2017. 

In May of last year, reports emerged of poor conditions at the facility, including medical neglect, spoiled and maggot-infested food, when they could get food at all, poor ventilation, metallic-tasting water, and a culture of coercion and aggression among the guards and ICE officers. This mirrors reports of maltreatment at many other ICE facilities across the country. 

As such, protests began last month outside the facility, spearheaded by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and some of the detained, who are staging a hunger strike. ICE agents retaliated against the protesters with aggressive force, including pepper spray. Detained people resisting inside the facility were put in solitary confinement or transferred to other facilities. Just a few days ago, a protester was hit by a car driven by a facility worker outside the facility. 

The same month, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation showed up to Delaney Hall demanding access to inspect conditions at the facility, which was denied. Baraka was arrested and detained on trespassing charges, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged he had crossed into a restricted area. He later issued an executive order prohibiting ICE from using Newark government buildings. Just last month, New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, a noted opponent of the facility and a supporter of BranchOut!, was present at one of the protests. According to The Guardian, when ICE agents attempted to clear the exits with armored vehicles, Senator Kim tried to position himself to mediate. The ICE agents pepper-sprayed them, hitting Senator Kim in the face and requiring him to flush out his eyes with water.

This did not, however, stop him from conducting an oversight inspection on the facility or denouncing its conditions as “shameful,” despite the DHS’s fervent denial of any “sub-prime” conditions there. The ACLU, for its part, has vowed to continue monitoring conditions at ICE facilities in New Jersey and across the country. 

The Senator is right. The conditions at Delaney Hall are shameful. Despite ICE and DHS denials of any bad conditions, their reluctance to permit any inspection strains their already-thin credibility. The inhumane immigration policies of the current administration should be one of the first targets of their successors, as a complete and comprehensive reform of the system is necessary for the well-treatment of everyone attempting to enter the United States. 

In the meantime, the protests outside Delaney Hall continue as of this writing and do not seem likely to stop anytime soon.

About the Author

Oliver Chi is a leader of the BranchOut! Newton Chapter. As a junior at Newton North High School in Newton, MA, he has a strong interest in history and community involvement. Through AmeriCorps, he assisted with the 2024 election by guiding voters through procedures and supporting the overall process. Oliver is a member of Newton North’s varsity History Team. He wrote an independent research paper on the impact of the War of 1812 on American nationalism, which was later published in the American Journal of Student Research.